Quilting attachment for sewing-machines



(No Model.)

L T. B. HOWARD.

QUILTING ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING MACHINES. No. 580,695.

' Patented Apr. 13, 1897-.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS B. HOWARD, OF BROVVNWOOD, TEXAS.

QUILTING ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING-MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 580,695, dated April 13, 1897. Application filed January 14, 1896- Serial No. 575,443. (No model.)

To wZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS E. HOWARD, of Brownwood, county of Brown, State of Texas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Quilting-Frames, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

The object of my invention is to produce an improved frame for carrying the rolls of cloth from which a quilt is to be made in a horizontal position, so that they are adapted to be stitched together, with the batting between them, by the aid of an ordinary sewing-machine; and it consists in certain improved mechanism and combination of mechanical elements by which the work may be facilitated and expedited and the cost of the frame reduced.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure I is a perspective view of my frame complete. Fig. II is a detail view of one end thereof. Fig. III is a similar View of the other end thereof. Fig. IV is a central vertical section of a portion of the suspension mechanism.

Referring to the figures on the drawings, 1 indicates a track. It is preferably provided with end frame-pieces 2, to which maybe secured eyelets 3, through which, as by stays 4, the track may be suspended from the side walls or ceiling of aroom, for example. The track 1 is designed to movably sustain a swinging frame-beam 5. For this purpose I provide a vertical supporting-piece 6, which carries in suitable bearings 7 a wheel 8, preferably grooved to fit the track 1. Near its lower end the piece 6 is preferably provided with an eyelet or eyebolt 9 and above it with a series of apertures 10. A rod 11 works in the eyebolt 9 and has a rectangularly-projecting end 12, that is adapted to enter any one of the apertures 10 through which its degree of elevation maybe fixed, The lower extremity of the rod 11 is bent at right angles to its body part and is provided with a loop 13. This loop encircles the perpendicular neck 14, that rises eccentrically or from the deflected portion 15 of a bolt 16, that is secured, as by a wing-nut 17, to the beam 5, the bolt being passed through the beam, and its lower end, projecting through the beam, being provided with screw-threads for the accommodation of the nut.

18 indicates a head with which the neck 14 terminates and which prevents the separation of the loop 13 from the neck.

19 indicates stays secured to a pin 20, that may be inserted in any one of a series of apertures 21, arranged to correspond with the apertures 10. The stays at their opposite ends, respectively, are secured to opposite ends of the beam 5. They serve to prevent the tilting of the beam or the jumping of the wheel 8 fromthe track 1. One end of the beam 5 is provided with a roller-supporting frame-piece, which is preferably made of plate metal. It consists, preferably, of a collar or yoke part 22, below which the ends of the frame are divergent and are bent in vertical planes, as indicated at 23, to accommodate a brace 24. One end of the frame-piece terminates in a vertically-disposed part and is provided with notches 26. The other end is bent into a horizontal plane, as indicated at 27, and is provided with a terminal bearing 28. The frame-piece at the opposite end to the beam 5 is of the same general character, except that it is preferably provided with a movable hook or pawl 29.

indicates a quilt-roller carried in the bearings 28 of the frame, and 31 and 32 respectively indicate cloth-rollers that are car'- ried, respectively, in the notches 26 of the frame-pieces. Upon the quilt-roller is wound the completed quilt as it is made from the cloth paid out from the rollers 31 and 34. Each of the rollers may be provided with a collar 33, that is pierced at intervals with apertures 34. l/Vith these apertures the hook 29 of the quilting-roller, or corresponding hooks 35, carried on one of the frame-pieces for the other rollers, are adapted, respectively, to engage. The respective hooks and their apertures constitute in efiect pawl-and-ratchet mechanism or tension-regulating devices for keeping the materials well wound upon the rollers.

In practice the cloth from the rollers is paid out toward the quilt-roller 30, as required,

batting being supplied between them. A sewing-machine 36 maybe employed to do the stitching. The horizontal portions 27 of the frame-pieces are designed to allow the frame and the quilt to be readily slipped under the presser-foot of the machine as required. The

series of apertures 10, with their cooperating elements, serve to adjust the height of the material carried on the rollers to suit different machines.

It will be perceived upon consideration that as the size of the roll upon the quilting-roller increases the center of gravity of the frame will be shifted. For this purpose I employ the peculiarly-shaped bolt the neck 14: of which Works in the loop 13. By loosening the nut 17 upon that bolt the neck can be turned through all the different positions of a half-revolution, and thereby conveniently counteract the change in the center of gravity, so as to keep the material upon the rollers always in the horizontal position.

What I claim is The combination with a beam of a quiltingframe and vertical supporting-piece therefor,

of an eyebolt in the end of the vertical supporting-piece, a series of apertures above the eyebolt, a rod working in the eyebolt secured at one end to the beam, and bent to enter any of the series of apertures above the eyebolt stays connected to the beam, a second series of apertures in the supporting-piece, and a pin uniting the stays and adapted to enter any one of the second series of apertures, the two series of apertures and their correlative elements affording means of independent adjustment, substantially as set forth.

In testimony of all which I have hereunto subscribed my name.

THOMAS E. HOWARD.

Witnesses:

J No. J. RAMEY, J. E. SMITH. 

